Minute's silence held for victims of Tunisia terror at Bishop of Nottingham's installation

The ordination of the new Bishop of Nottingham began with a minute’s silence this morning, to remember the victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in Tunisia.

Monsignor Patrick McKinney’s ordination Mass began at 11:30 at St Barnabas’ Cathedral in Nottingham and was attended by bishops from across England and Wales, including his predecessor Archbishop Malcolm McMahon and Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the Apostolic Nuncio.

During his homily Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who ordained Mgr McKinney as the tenth Bishop of Nottingham, said that Christian forgiveness robs terrorism of its power. He said that the Gospel of Jesus Christ “calls us to proclaim fundamental values which have to be found at the heart of the kind of society to which we all aspire. These are the values, the principles, of a transcendental humanism. They both underpin and reach beyond the pragmatic values of today and rest on a hope that we of ourselves cannot fulfil. Jesus is the vision of this humanism for he is the one human being who has reached fulfilment and who makes that fulfilment attainable for every person.”

He continued: “In the face of all the threats we face, this is our salvation. The forgiveness shown by the Christians of Charleston, Alabama, robs terrorism of its power. The mercy of Christian humanism, a mercy to be shown to all, shows up the darkness of ideologies of death and why they are to be rejected by all who believe in the mystery of God at the heart of life. These are difficult days, yet our message of mercy and of eternal life, and our witness to them, has never been more relevant.”

Bishop McKinney has previously served as a school chaplain and was a student at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he gained a Licence in Sacred Theology.

He was rector of St Mary’s College, Oscott where he served from 1989 until 1998 to take up the role of parish priest at Our Lady and All Saints, Stourbridge and Dean of the Dudley Deanery.